Probation, Psychotherapy Ordered : Computer ‘Terrorist’ Sentenced

A 19-year-old Burbank woman was sentenced Friday to three years’ probation and ordered to attend psychotherapy sessions for her involvement in a “reign of electronic terror” that began after a computer “hacker,” acting at her behest, electronically broke into the victim’s credit files.

Jennifer Schuster, who had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of harassment, cried softly as Judge Kenneth L. Chotiner pronounced sentence.

Schuster told a probation officer she participated in the computer harassment of 21-year-old Wendei Melnick because: “I didn’t appreciate her calling my boyfriend at work and asking him to come over.”

Retaliatory Move

In retaliation, Schuster asked Steven Rhoades, a 20-year-old, self-proclaimed computer hacker, to “terrorize” Melnick, Los Angeles Police Detective Duane Burris said.

Rhoades, who lives in Eagle Rock, was put on probation after a 1979 incident in which he and three other youths were charged with tapping into a North American Air Defense Command computer in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The 1983 motion picture “War Games,” in which a nuclear war is almost started by computer hackers, was based on a similar incident.

Rhoades was sentenced in December for his part in the harassment of Melnick. He received a 90-day jail sentence and was placed on two years’ probation.

“Rhoades may have engineered the operation, but Jennifer Schuster fully participated in the reign of electronic terror that lasted four months,” said Deputy City Atty. David Schulman, who prosecuted the case.

At Friday’s sentencing, Melnick testified that she received up to 50 anonymous threatening telephone calls a day at her home and place of employment, a Woodland Hills computer manufacturer.

“I didn’t know who was calling me,” she said. “It would either be a deep voice or a high shrill that sounded like a spooky Mickey Mouse.”

The caller recited Melnick’s Social Security number, her driver’s license number, facts about the three previous jobs she had held, where she rented furniture and how much she owed on an outstanding car loan, Burris said.

“They told me I was going to die. They knew everything about me. It was terrifying. I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t think it was any kind of joke,” Melnick said before Schuster’s sentencing Friday in Van Nuys Municipal Court.

Simultaneous Calls

Using a computer, Rhoades was able to call Schuster’s place of employment on all five of the company’s telephones simultaneously, Melnick said. The calls became such a nuisance that Melnick’s employer hired a temporary secretary just to answer the phones.

Burris said that Rhoades and Schuster were close friends and that the two often attended computer hacker sessions.

On Sept. 18, detectives raided Rhoades’ home after eventually tracing the calls and found messages from Schuster on Rhoades’ telephone answering machine.

Schuster’s attorney, Eugene C. Berchin, maintained that, although the defendant may have asked Rhoades to harass Melnick, “Rhoades lost control. There is no indication that my client encouraged him.”

Asking the judge for leniency for Schuster, Berchin said, “Her boyfriend was about to be taken away. What she did was based on love. Please be kind.”

Besides formal probation and psychotherapy sessions for 36 months, Chotiner ordered Schuster to perform 200 hours of community service.

Schulman said that the defendant’s crime should not be taken lightly. “It demonstrates the terrible consequences of technology’s abuse under the cover of anonymity. The defendants demonstrated a frightening degree of control over” the victim’s life.

Despite the motive for the four-month harassment she underwent, Melnick said, she went out with Schuster’s boyfriend only twice.

“I lost interest in him,” she said.

For her part, Schuster said she hadn’t seen her former boyfriend in months.